Radiohead Knowledge Base:Chat
The Chat is a feature that allows users to connect in real time on a wiki. Anyone with a Wikia account can join the chat by clicking the "Join the Chat" or "Start a Chat" button on the right navigation rail. You can also access the chat by visiting Special:Chat the wiki. By using the chat you agree to the "Terms of Use." Purpose of this guideline The intention of these guidelines and rules are to ensure the Radiohead Wiki Chat is a welcoming and helpful place for new and returning visitors alike. It's also to make clear what sort of behavior is and isn't acceptable, and what you should expect when visiting. In order to best provide an environment in which we can give help and support to users who need it, please keep in mind the following rules and guidelines when using the Chat. At all times, please go along with with staff requests. If you ignore them, you risk being kicked or banned from Chat. What are Chat Moderators? Chat Moderators are users who have been entrusted with all necessary tools to enforce the rules and guidelines for the Radiohead Wiki chat. Chat Moderators are essentially the administrators of the Chat. The tools a Chat Moderator has access to are official warnings, kicking, and banning users. Chat mods should make visitors feel welcome, and not uncomfortable in any way. Their behavior should reflect policy. Chat moderators are identifiable in chat when a yellow star is visible next to their name. Admins are identifiable in chat with a green star. It's important to note that Chat moderators are not infallible, and if you believe you have witnessed a moderator breaking policy or the points outlined above, please see the "Report rule-breaking with screen captures" section. Grounds for blocking Any users that break policy, behave disruptively, or fail to behave appropriately towards other users will be removed from the Chat. The number of people in the Chat at the time of the offense is irrelevant. If you witness any such offenses being committed, alert a Chat Mod or Administrator. As role models for the community, all members of the staff should not only follow these rules themselves, but rigorously enforce them. When you enter the chat, you are expected to have knowledge of all these rules, as they are linked when you join. Ignorance of these rules is not an excuse for breaking them. The possible reasons include (but are not limited to) the following: Terms of Use Wikia's Terms of Use must be enforced directly as stated. While the typical grounds for blocking have some room to draw context in, a Terms of Use breakage does not. Because the Terms of Use apply to Wikia as a whole, users who violate them may be globally (rather than locally) blocked. Personal attacks Personal attacks against another user will not be tolerated. This wiki has a zero-tolerance policy on bullying, even if the user is currently offline. We define bullying as the targeting of someone and speaking to them in a derogatory manner due to their nationality, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, interests, sociological factors (spelling, grammar, intellect, etc), psychological state (mental illnesses), or physical appearance. Also includes goading other users with comments that you know will provoke a reaction. The use of slurs to describe or insult a group based on race, physical handicap, religious preference, or sexual orientation is grounds for blocking, even if they are not directed towards a specific person or group presently on the Chat. The use of excessive profanity or swearing directed towards another user with aggressive behavior is not permitted. The use of occasional swearing is fine, but swearing in every other sentence is discouraged. If a user takes offense and asks another user to leave the Chat or feels intimidated, then the guilty party should be reported to a moderator or administrator. Disruptive behavior All users should behave in a civil manner and follow the Etiquette Guidelines. Don't go out of your way to irritate others. If an argument begins to disrupt the stability of the main chat and affect other users it will be stopped by a chat mod or admin. Ideally, heated arguments should be taken to a private chat. Especially do not try to test the patience of the admins or chat moderators. While we allow users to jokingly "insult" friends, this is not to be allowed to the point it disrupts chat. In this case, it will be punished as a breakage of this rule. Discussing sensitive topics such as real-world politics, religion, etc. without the consent of the majority should be avoided. While a civil conversation or debate on these subjects is fine, they should be closely watched by a chat moderator or an admin, who will cease them should they believe it's getting out of hand. Online relationships being displayed in main chat are to be counted as both spam and disruption. We advise all users, if they must do such things on the Chat, to use the Private Messaging feature. Two users getting overly sexual, or obviously trying to stand on the line of what is allowed and prohibited by this rule, is also counted as a rule break. Harassment Harassment, insults to someone's well being or insults made with the intention of being hurtful, death threats, etc. can not escape jurisdiction and enforcement, not even in Private Messaging. If reported, the situations will be treated as if they were in the main chat of the wiki. It is expected that users remain civil to each other. Death threats that occur off-site, depending on origin, can be punished with a chat ban as well. Abuse of the Private Message feature is disallowed. Using private messages to send messages that break any of the rules detailed in this policy. In Private Messaging anything can be spoken of, and the rules do not typically apply. However, should one party voice that they are not comfortable with whatever is going on, and the other party continues, it is a rule breakage. Should a user harass you with such messages, please take a gif screen capture of it (a gif is greatly preferred over a still image, as the former is more difficult to manipulate and thus more reliable) and report it to a chat mod or admin. Trolling or general irritation or disruption of other users should be avoided at all times. This often includes, but is not limited to; excessive usage of capital letters, punctuation marks, deliberate distortions of the English language, and excessive usage of non-English languages, or "133t" speak. In many cases, this can be treated as spam (rule 11), as the two activities often pair together. Spam Spam is classified as a repeated posting of content that exists to disrupt chat, such as using excessive amounts of capital letters or non-English languages, overuse of emoticons, and flooding the chat by repeatedly leaving and joining. We will also count flooding the chat with repetitive posts/ASCII art/song lyrics/nonsense/bot commands as spam. Do not abuse the use of "!mods" (or pings of any sort). It is there to alert the moderators when a rule is being broken, if they are not paying attention to the chat. Wasting their time is not an acceptable use of the feature. Sockpuppetry Sockpuppeting is strictly disallowed. Using multiple accounts brought into the chat by the same person or using a different account for any reason will result in all sockpuppet accounts being instantly kicked and permanently banned, as well as the main account, depending on the given situation. If a user wishes to switch to a different account, they should tell a chat moderator or administrator so that one of their two accounts can be permanently blocked from the wiki. Doxxing Linking to external sources which violate any of the rules stated on this page. Notably, publicly linking to websites such as Facebook that violate personal privacy is not permitted without prior consent from the user whose privacy might be violated. Content (censored or uncensored) such as videos, pictures, etc. that host gore, pornography, or otherwise highly NSFW material are also not permitted whatsoever. In addition, discussing the exchange of explicit materials to take place on a different platform is also forbidden. The violation of personal privacy is unacceptable. This includes revealing personal information about users (e.g. real name, location, age, gender, occupation, etc.) and violating confidentiality on particular issues (such as issues asked to be kept confidential by other users or administrators). We do not tolerate invasion of privacy regardless of meaning or context. It is unacceptable in every case, and will be punished as such. Brigading Raiding other wikis or attempting to cause cross-wiki drama is not permitted, nor is trolling them while using our services. If you partake in an actual raid (raids being done with the intent to spam, troll, or anger another chat - not simply a collection of users going at once), expect to be punished on our wiki as well. We wish to avoid as much drama between services as possible. Roleplaying Excessive roleplay in main chat is prohibited, and will be treated as both spam and disruption of chat. Roleplay is defined as pretending to be a character from some form of media, a made up identity, or typing out all of your actions. Roleplay is "excessive" at the judgement of a moderator, or the majority of chat. Miscellaneous Sharing links to the "funnyjunk" domain is prohibited. This website is blacklisted, and sharing a link to it will break the chatlog uploading process. Do not share links to highly NSFW websites in general. If a user takes issue with something another user has said, but no rules were broken in the process, we advise you to seek a civil method of resolving that. Creating a scene because you were upset by something legitimate is prohibited. This does not permit purposeful attempts to offend a user. Please do not attempt to find a loophole in the rules. We can tell that the intent of all users that attempt to do this is nothing but destructive. All rules apply to staff as well. If you see a bureaucrat, administrator, chat moderator, or staff of any other kind breaking these rules, report them to another staff member so that they can be dealt with. Punishments Admins and Chat Moderators have a degree of discretion relating to the issuing of warnings and bans. The content of messages will greatly impact on the severity of the punishment. In certain cases, exceptions may be permitted, although these are infrequent. Typically, the following hierarchy will apply to infringements on the above regulations (with the exception of specifically implied consequences). *First offense: Warning. This warning does not "reset" daily if the same offense is committed. *Second offense: Kick If a user breaks policy after their first kick, the next step is a ban. Admins and Chat Mods should leave a message on the talk page of the user who has been banned with the reason and a link to the chat logs (if available), assuming the user in question is not a troll or otherwise uninterested in reforming their behavior. This is to record the offense and formally notify the user. Each punishment for a user, if done in close enough proximity (up to the moderators/administrators to decide), the punishment should be in escalating length. If a user is deemed "unfixable," the user may be permanently removed from the chat and/or the wiki as a whole. Offenses such as sexual harassment, death threats, spam, revealing of personal information, or attempting to have another user punished for something they didn't do, do not warrant a warning or kick. Instead, all of these issues are to be met with an instantaneous ban or block, changing in length based on the extent of the offense. Report rule-breaking with screen captures We ask all of our users to take gif screen captures (using Gyazo Gif, for example) of any offenses that they witness and wish to report to a Chat Mod or Admin. This is vital when reporting another user, as it would be used as evidence when action is taken against them. If you can't take gif screen captures or didn't manage to get one at the time, you can still bring your complaint to a moderator or admin. A gif screen capture is preferred over a still image capture, as the latter can be easily manipulated, while gifs are much more difficult to edit. Please make sure that some part of the gif is in motion, such as your cursor, for your screen capture to be considered entirely legitimate. We also recommend doing this if you need to report a Chat Mod to an Admin regarding their actions or inaction in chat. See below. Backseat moderating If you witness any of the chat policies being broken and a Chat Mod is online, it's best to leave the situation in their hands. Mods should be watching the chat and deal with any issues that arise. If they happen to be preoccupied when this issue occurred, do not attempt to chastise the user who has broken policy, as this can lead to conflict. Instead, alert a Chat Mod of the issue. Simply telling a user that they are breaking the rules is not against this rule. If you witness a Chat Mod actively ignoring any policies being broken (or breaking them themselves), take a gif screen capture and report it to an administrator. Disagreements with another user If you have constructive criticism regarding another user (such as their language, behavior, or mannerisms), the first step is to try and take this up with the person in question in a private message or talk page post. No one is exempt from criticism, even staff members. If the issue is directed towards a Chat Moderator, message them with your concern. Chat Mods are expected to answer private messages of such nature, where they may explain their reasoning or actions. Alternatively, you may post your concerns on the talk page of the Moderator in question. If you are dissatisfied with the outcome or are uncomfortable speaking with the Chat Moderator in question, take the issue directly to an Administrator. While these avenues are more private, all users are required to follow the Etiquette guidelines and behave in a civil and respectful manner. Failure to do so will result in actions being taken: *For non-staff members, this may result in a ban. *For staff members, this can result in the removal of moderation tools and/or a ban. Only if this method has been tried and has failed, users are encouraged to take the issue to a neutral Administrator to mediate. Like mods, active Admins are expected to follow up on complaints of this nature. When taking a complaint to an administrator, a gif screen capture of the issue is highly encouraged. Evidence is paramount. Tips *There are a wide variety of emoticons which can be used in Chat. For the full list, see MediaWiki:Emoticons. *Links work exactly the same in Chat as they do in the editor. For example, typing in Chat results in —the main forum of Community Central. *You can make shorter links to other wikis by using an . For example, typing w:c:starwars in Chat results in w:c:starwars—an easy way to link to Wookieepedia (http://starwars.wikia.com). *You can also link to specific pages using this method. Typing w:c:avatar:Aang in Chat results in a link to the Aang page on the Avatar Wiki (http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Aang). See also * Category:Policies